Flying bear hits SUV – 2 people dead

A car accident involving two vehicles and a bear in Canada has killed two people and the bear near the town of Luskville, about 25 miles northwest of Ottawa, Ontario.

Police say a 300-pound male black bear wandered onto a road and was hit by an eastbound Pontiac Sunfire. The bear was sent hurtling through the air and into the winscreen of an oncoming Nissan Pathfinder sport utility vehicle.

Quebec Regional Police spokesman, Officer Martin Fournel said the bear went through the car, killing two people and was flung out the back window. “It was a 300-pound bullet,” he said.

The SUV’s 35-year-old female driver and a 40-year-old man sitting behind her were killed; a 28-year-old front-seat passenger suffered minor injuries, Fournel said. In the Pontiac, neither the driver, a 23-year-old man, nor his 19-year-old male passenger was hurt.

No alcohol or drugs were involved, and police are still trying to determine each vehicle’s speed in the 90 kph zone, Fournel said, adding that charges are unlikely.

“It’s a first, there’s no doubt about that,” he said. “We had similar accident several years ago with a deer going through the windshield and ending up in the back seat, where it injured a boy. He wasn’t killed, he was hurt. But it was not like this.”

It’s bear mating season, and many male bears are out looking – sometimes recklessly – for females, so drivers on rural roads should be watchful, hunting guide Daniel Larocque told the Canadian television network CBC.